Teenage Rapper Drops Mixtape, Spurs Buzz

(The Root) -- Brooklyn, N.Y., 17-year-old Joey Bada$$ may only be a senior in high school, but his inaugural mixtape 1999 is already creating buzz on music sites and across the blogosphere. Equal parts old school and new, 1999 showcases the burgeoning renaissance of a hip-hop sound and vibe that far precedes the teenaged rapper.

Today, hip-hop in New York -- in the city where rap was born -- arguably more often resembles the jarring tracks of Azealia Banks or the raw and sample-driven productions of A$AP Rocky and his clan rather than the genre's unadulterated beginnings in Bed-Stuy, the South Bronx, Queens and beyond.

Joey Bada$$, on the other hand, shoves his youth aside for the timeless cool of rap music's first incarnation, saturating his debut mixtape with a bit of hip-hop’s original swag. Check out Joey Bada$$'s 1999 in its entirety here.